London, Nov. 4.
In the House of Commons to-day, replying to Sir A, W. Yeo and Mr. Thomas Myers, Colonel Amery, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, stated that slavery did not exist in Hongkong. or in any other British Colony. The Colony's law did not recognize the custom, by which girls were transferred for payment from parents and guardians to another household, usually: for purposes of domestic purposes, as conferring any right or title on the employer against the girl. There was no evidence that these girls were frequently ill-treated and in that event they were protected by the law in the same way as children, living with their parents, The Secretary of State considered that the right course was to aim at gradual reform, where necessary, in cooperation-with enlightened and humane Chinese, in which connexion he suggested that the Governor should persuade prominent Chinese to form a Society for the protection and improvement of the condition of these girl domestics, which arrangement Colonel Amery considered preferable to a system of compulsory registration, which the Colony's officers considered impracticable.—Reuter.
Dunixc the Peace Conference Mr. Balfour had occasion to consult one of the British expert advisers on a technical point that had arisen. Meeting Mr. Lloyd George later in the day, he asked, writes a correspondent of the "Liverpool Post," if the Premier could tell him who the expert was. Mr. Lloyd George invited a description of the gentleman. "He has the head of a horse," said Mr. Balfour, "and the brains of an ass." "You mean So-and-so," replied the perceptive Prime Minister; and it was so. The expert was one of Mr. Balfour's Ministerial colleagues.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.